People burdened by severely damaged vocal cords have new reason to hope they could someday get their voices back. Tissue engineers have for the first time made structures that not only resemble real vocal cords but also function like them.
Impaired vocal cords make it hard or impossible for people to speak. There is currently no way to fix severe damage, which can result from surgery, traumatic injury, or diseases like cancer. So researchers at the University of Wisconsin are trying to engineer replacements.
Transplant surgeons have started using a device that allows them to “reanimate” hearts from people who have recently died, and use the organs to save others.
The “heart in a box” is a wheeled cart with an oxygen supply, a sterile chamber, and tubing to clamp onto a donor heart and keep it fed with blood and nutrients. Doctors say it may extend the time a heart can last outside the body and is letting them recover hearts from donors who haven’t been eligible before.
